Gift Wrapped
by wearenotgods
Summary: Seasons change. People change. Everything changes a lot quicker in Mystic Falls than it should.
1. The Lull

**Summary: **Seasons change, people change, everything changes a lot quicker in Mystic Falls than it should.

**Disclaimer**: I own nothing.

**Pairing:** Bonnie/Jeremy, eventually Bonnie/Tyler, Bonnie/Tyler/ Jeremy

**Rated**: M

**Warnings**: Sexual situations, smoking of a controlled substance, mentions of suicide, mentions of child abuse.

* * *

Bonnie opts out of leaving for the summer in order to keep a closer eye out on her friends. Klaus is still alive and still unpredictable and that never leaves the back of her mind. She can't let it leave her mind.

_And there's Jeremy. _

She's never had a shortage of admirers but there aren't many that make it to the boyfriend level. And by not many, there hasn't been one. But Jeremy is different. He's sweet and naive and all he has to do is smile at her and her day is better. The feeling is new and for some reason she keeps trying to tell herself not to get too attached to it. Her recent track record hasn't been the greatest but she's hopeful and that's kind of all she has at this point. Hope. There are plenty of reasons the thing with Jeremy might not work. The kid's got baggage. Bags he hasn't unloaded. He's got a sister that attracts trouble like a magnet. And she's got mommy and daddy issues and witch issues on top of it all. But he's so supportive sometimes it makes her head spin and that's enough for her.

That shouldn't throw her off her game like it does but it does. Because it's hard being a witch and nobody will ever get how hard it is, but Jeremy is willing to try. He has so much trust and respect for her craft, for her, it's _almost_ too good to be true.

That's got to be the only reason she'll forgive him for making her wait this long. She's been sitting in the driveway in front of the Lockwood's mansion for the past twenty minutes. Hitting redial she waits until she hears Jeremy's voice.

"What are you doing up there?"

There's the sound of gun shots in the background and Bonnie rolls her eyes. "I'm sorry. I'll..." the noises in the background stop but she can hear Tyler's mumbled voice, "We're almost done but Ty said you can just come up if you want."

"Oh. Thanks_. How sweet of him_."

Bonnie's flip flops slap against the pavement as she makes her way to the door. They've never hung out at Tyler's house as a group and if it's an event the door is usually open. As she's cursing Tyler and Jeremy for not coming to get her the door is pulled open. Carol Lockwood stands in a pair of jeans and a tank top looking the most normal she's ever seen her. "Hello Bonnie. I saw you walking up the driveway, come in."

Bonnie's had about three conversations with Mrs. Lockwood in her entire life; the fact that she remembers her name is pretty impressive. "How are you?"

"I'm good. Thanks for asking. How are you?"

"I'm great. Thanks for asking."

"What brings you by?"

"I came to see Jeremy. He's hanging out with Tyler."

"Ahh…they've been up there all morning. It's hell trying to pull them away from that game."

"_I know_."

Mrs. Lockwood's hand touches her shoulder and she stiffens just a little. " I doubt they'll be done anytime soon. Let me fix you something to drink. You have to be thirsty." Bonnie doesn't know why Tyler's mom is so chatty or why she's following her into the kitchen but she finds herself sitting at the island in the kitchen.

She watches the mayor fill the glass with ice and top it off with lemonade. Not once has Bonnie ever thought about the inner workings of the Lockwood family, she just never expected that Mrs. Lockwood would be doing this. She'd thought there'd be servants or maids but in actuality the house is silent. It doesn't seem like there's anyone there but them.

"So Jeremy, huh?" The older woman grins. Laugh lines crowding around her mouth.

"Yeah…Jeremy." Bonnie hasn't had to explain what Jeremy is to her to her father yet or any adults for that matter so she hasn't gotten any practice at what to say. It's not that she's embarrassed of their relationship or anything. It's just a novel concept to her and every time she talks about Jeremy she gets all googly eyed and warm-faced. And that must be what happens because the older woman is nodding and smiling even more while she leans against the counter.

"You're dating." Bonnie's smile matches hers.

"Yeah."

"That's exciting. I can't believe you guys are old enough to date."

"I can't either." Her hands wipe idly at the condensation forming on the glass as they laugh.

"You've got great taste. I was just saying to myself I couldn't believe that handsome young man is Jeremy Gilbert. I remember when he was in diapers. I remember when you and Tyler were in diapers."

The air changes before the werewolf makes an appearance. "Really mom?" Tyler's standing at the kitchen door, shirtless with basketball shorts slung low on his hips leaning against the frame.

"It wasn't that long ago."

Tyler comes over nudging Bonnie on her shoulder and making his way to his mother to lay a kiss on her cheek. "It was like ten years ago I'm sure Bonnie didn't plan on having…girl talk with you."

"I don't mind." It was nice. Parents were supposed to talk to their children's friends. Be involved. Her father did a poor job of it and her mother wasn't around to attempt. It wasn't horrible to have someone be interested in your life.

Tyler just throws her a look and she laughs while the werewolf pushes her out of the room and she does a slight wave directed towards his mother. Tyler's passes her up and walks up the stairs. She trails behind him. "Is she always like that?"

"Ever since my dad died, yeah. I don't know she's just really...sentimental. A few more minutes and there would've been tears." His mother has never been all that mothering or sentimental and he's never really faulted her for that. He had nanny's and she had events to organize, his father to deal with. He couldn't forget that she often turned a blind eye to his father's abuse, finally he'd been able to admit that's what it was, but she was trying to make it up now. As horrible as it sounds, if he'd had to choose for a parent to die, he's glad it was his dad.

Jeremy is sitting on the floor in front of Tyler's bed a controller in hand when they walk into the room.. "What took you guys so long?" Bonnie rolls her eyes and sits beside him. He pauses the game to press his lips against hers but when he tries to deepen the kiss she pulls back. "What?"

Her eyes motion towards Tyler whose slipping on a shirt. "It doesn't bother me."

"Yeah, it doesn't bother him." When he tries again she moves so that his lips hit her cheek. Giving him a look that says "not here" she waits until he gives up and leans back against the bed, but not before placing a hand on her knee and squeezing. It brings a smile to her face that he returns.

"What have you guys been doing all day?"

"Stuff." When the two of them laugh at the shared joke, _is it a even a joke if Bonnie doesn't find it funny_, she sighs.

"It's cool if Tyler comes to eat with us right?" This whole Tyler and Jeremy being besties thing is weird enough but the fact that this just became a group date is even weirder. Bonnie wants to remind him that three's a crowd but Jeremy looks so expectant and he doesn't have any friends, and Tyler, well Tyler really doesn't have any either. Matt is still upset about the almost-sorta-kinda-thing that he and Caroline had. And Caroline hasn't spoken to him after the whole almost getting her killed thing (and Bonnie's supports that completely).

Jeremy's still grieving over his aunt and uncle's deaths and Bonnie's glad he has a friend (besides her) to deal with it. Things could've been different if he'd had a bigger support group when his parents died, so while Tyler's not someone Bonnie would've thought of as supportive, Jeremy's been coping a lot better this time around and she's grateful that Ty's there. "Yeah. If he wants to."

Looking back over her shoulder she catches Tyler shrug but there's still a small smile playing on his lips.

* * *

Tyler knows that Bonnie would rather spend time with Jeremy alone and that she doesn't like him all that much, but she's pretty cool about it. They bypass the Grill after Jeremy complains that he'd like to go one day without smelling like the fryers. "I'm off for a couple of days, l just want to enjoy it." The dinner down the street is okay somehow. All Tyler wants to do is find a building with air conditioning and maybe inhale a burger or two and he's good.

Bonnie slides into the circular booth first, the red leather sticking to her exposed thighs. Jeremy and Tyler come in to sit on her sides. The waitress takes down their orders and Bonnie sips on her lemonade as they wait.

There is this tenseness Bonnie carries that he assumes is because of his presence but he soon realizes she's naturally on edge. It's almost like he can feel her jitteriness beneath her skin. Lately Tyler's gotten good at reading people's body language, their emotions, not that he always takes them into mind before acting, but he's in tune with people now. He chalks it up to being a werewolf thing.

Jeremy who is not a werewolf seems to be pretty in tune with Bonnie too, and he watches him rest arm around her shoulder, it's deliberate, but he does and she relaxes into it. He's always been like that, good at reading people and Tyler's always a little jealous of him in that aspect when it came to Vicki. The one time he'd asked what she'd seen in the youngest Gilbert she'd replied, "I don't have to tell him stuff...he just knows...like I don't have to make him understand how I'm feeling..._he gets it_. And he's not a freaking dick to me all the time." He tries not to remember how much of a dick he was to her, but the first part always stuck.

(-)

Bonnie's chicken strips are too hot to eat so she's meticulously breaking them apart and setting them aside. She can feel Tyler's gaze on her.

"What?"

"That's so weird."

"I don't want to burn my mouth." He obviously doesn't care because his burger was steaming when ordered it and now half of it's gone. Jeremy laughs and asks, "what'd you do today?"

"This morning went to my Grams place to look through her files...she's got tons of lecture notes and some of it could be helpful. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything in the ones I read, but I'm taking them home to look at later."

Shelia's house almost looked no different now than it did when she was alive. There was no electricity, no food in the fridge and the biggest difference was the temperature inside the house that Shelia kept as close to freezing as possible. No one had taken the time to pack her things away, and no one cared except Bonnie. She'd been left the house and all the contents inside so it was hers do what she wished and somehow tossing things into storage made no sense to her. She'd been asked her dad to let her move in by herself which he obviously opposed, not like he was here to enforce it, so she'd planned on paying the few monthly bills out of her allowance, she just hadn't gotten around to it.

"I don't think I'll find anything though."

"You'll find what you need eventually. You always do." "I'm sure I will."

(-)

Jeremy takes a sip of his chocolate malt and rolls the ice cream on his tongue.

He hates chocolate malts.

His mother drank them religiously every Tuesday on Burger Night, the only day of week besides Waffle Wednesday that everyone knew that Miranda's meals would be edible. She'd spoon the malt powder into the blender and Jeremy would sit at the island doing his homework.

"When I was pregnant with you I used to drink these every day." She had to tell him this story a thousand times but he's just now realized how she never spoke about what she craved when she was pregnant with Elena. There's selfish part of him that's glad he has this one memory that belongs to him and only him.

Everybody loves Elena. He loves Elena and always will, but there's it's hard being her brother. Nothing ever is really his. In school he's Elena's brother. At home she was the first born, no matter who actually birthed her. She had an extra year to charm their parents, and she made sure he never forgot it. He still can't.

Elena was the last person that seen his parents alive. He doesn't blame her for what happened, but for some reason he's jealous of that. She didn't get to say goodbye either but she can probably remember their last conversation. That's probably a curse in itself, but it's hers. He has very few memories of his parents that aren't intertwined with Elena.

He takes another sip.

This is gross, but this is his.

He hates chocolate malts.

(-)

"I did end up practicing some spells. Ever since the…thing…my powers have been kind of shaky." The spell to weaken Klaus was physically and mentally draining. It took two weeks before she could even work up to thinking about floating a feather and her powers are just starting to come back to her. The next time she goes up against Klaus she'll need to be stronger because she's sending Elijah with him.

His warm hand finds hers. "Everything's okay right?" She nods. "You would tell me if it wasn't? I don't want you doing anything dangerous to keep any of us safe." Bonnie can't guarantee that. This last attempt was a failure just like her first and despite Elijah betraying them she still can't get over feeling like it's her fault. Burdening Jeremy with the truth is unnecessary.

"Everything's fine. I'll be careful." He looks as if he wants to say something and she reaches over to kiss him. It's slightly manipulative, but Jeremy is not going to let this go. It's worth the small amount of guilt if she gets him off her back about this. This time the kiss is deeper and she can taste the malt on his tongue.

He mumbles into her lips, " Bonnie, I know what you're doing." Her palm is pressed against his cheek. Luckily they're in a booth in the back where nobody can see them because her hand slips into Jeremy's lap and she squeezes. When a moan catches in his throat she pulls back, only to repeat the action. He drops the subject. She knew he would.

(-)

Tyler's sitting there doing that thing you do when you're the third wheel. That thing where you pretend like you aren't watching your friend get groped in public and you're a little jealous that it's not happening to you.

This summer has been a bust in the girls department. Living in a town your entire life means smaller dating prospects, even though dating is not on his mind. Caroline's still mad at him and he'd really thought she'd come around by now. They were getting close. Admittedly, they'd both fucked up but he hadn't really forgiven her and she'd definitely hadn't forgive him. Add that on top of being a monumental asshole to almost every girl in the graduating class in the past year (he blames that on the werewolf hormones; he can't help that he's moody), it's been a rough summer so far.

He has all the excess energy all the time. His skin always feels like a furnace, heat pulled tight against his muscles. And he's horny. It's to the point where it's embarrassing. If he were having sex he could at least work some of it off but that's rough when nobody wants to sleep with you. Even the underclassman are avoiding him. The only thing coming close to release is working out and that just makes you horny in the end.

Tyler clears his throat after the kiss almost turns into a makeout session. Pulling apart he can almost feel the heat coming off of the witches face.

"I'm sure you can eat without burning your mouth now."

"Yeah."

* * *

After dropping Tyler off they'd come back to his place. Elena's over Damon's, and usually this would frustrate him, but she's glad that she's out of the house.

Bonnie's laying on his bed face down into a cool pillow. Skin hot from being in the sun. Jeremy's moving around his room: putting things on his desk, taking off his shoes. Dipping into the bed he ghosts his fingers across her shoulder.

She can feel the question in the air and she waits. He'll get it out eventually. Turning her head towards him she smiles. He smiles back.

"We haven't…_you know_ since the funeral…not that we have to, I don't want to pressure you or anything but I thought you liked it, I liked it….and back at the diner I kind of thought that you'd want to do it again and…I want to."

First times were supposed to be awkward, or so she'd been told. The night in the witch's house was nice. Good. Great even. The whole dying thing weakened the novelty of seeing each other naked for the first time. Then the only other time they'd done it was after his they'd buried two more members of his family. It wasn't laughs and giggles like it should've been but it was still satisfying. There would still be nerves, but each time it gotten a little easier.

However this conversation, the way it was going, was probably the more awkward than both of those experiences combined. "You're right…we haven't since then, and I would like to, too."

Bonnie hadn't intentionally been withholding from him but her dad came back after Jenna and John's funeral. They'd been "bonding" which meant spending enough time together to only scratch the surface of making it up to her. Movies, dinner, shopping—house arrest.

And then Jeremy who'd been putting up a good front still wasn't back to normal, or the normal she'd become accustomed to. Expecting nothing different, she refused to push it. He'd lost people close to him, it was understandable, mourning takes time and after his lack of attempts to push towards anything but a few pg-13 kisses, she'd decided she wouldn't push either. Until today and that was just to get him off her back.

That doesn't mean she doesn't want it. She does. Probably more than he does and she's glad he brought it up.

This time she initiates. So far Jeremy had been in control (not really), but as the one with the most experience he had a better idea how this works in practice, not just in theory.

She knows how it works now.

Bonnie's on top of him. Running her lips down his bare chest. She tugs at his cargos and pulls them off. Jeremy keeps his condoms in his nightstand which seems way too far for Bonnie's liking. Somehow she decides that it's less work for her to just take the one he's got inside his wallet. Her hands feel around for the leather finding it in the side pocket. With it comes a plastic baggie that falls to the bed

This is what he and Tyler have been doing all day.

Objectively there's nothing wrong with smoking weed. Her Grams smoked occasionally and all of her friends had tried it at least once. Historically however, Jeremy smoking hasn't been a good sign. Before she can question him about it he stops her. "We can smoke if you want to…_before_. We've never done that…not that we've done a lot or you have to…or if you don't want me to I won't…we…we don't have to do it." Her hand covers his mouth. He's so awkward sometimes it's embarrassing. It took a while to see him this unsure about anything. Jeremy's always been so insistent, especially in the beginning, but now, maybe even then if she thinks about it hard enough, he's kind of always waited on her, wanting her approval. It's always been her choice. She likes that more than she should.

This, well it's an experience. One she's never had, and it's the summer and Caroline always says that bad decision making is okay then. Caroline's got the right idea.

"I'll smoke with you."

-X-

It shouldn't be adorable to watch him roll a joint but it is. He's meticulously rolling and tucking. "There's nothing worse than a sloppy joint." She nods.

When he asks her if she wants to learn how to roll it doesn't matter that she already knows how because she lets him "teach" her anyway. He sits her between his legs with her back to his chest placing a textbook on her lap. He shows her how to hold her fingers and where to tuck, and how to lick, _not too much spit or it'll be too wet_, how to twist the ends. She lets him because it's so cute when she gets to see Jeremy completely at ease with her. He tries to be and she can tell when it's a front, usually for her benefit, but they've been dating for months and they haven't really gotten to spend a lot of time together. There was Elijah and then Klaus. The sacrifice freed up a lot of time on their hands. The panic that Klaus' presence brought died when the three women died that night. For all intents and purposes Elena's dead, Stefan's gone and they can kind of think clearer. The urgency to react isn't there, and she just wants to soak that feeling in and enjoy it.

He lights it and she takes the first puff inhaling, not too deep, and she holds it while bringing it up to his mouth. He shakes his head. Jeremy glances at her lips and back to her eyes so she catches on. Craning her neck back she holds her mouth close to his. His lips part.

She blows.

He inhales.

She's smiling. Green eyes meeting his for only a second before she pressing her lips to his and he's chuffing smoke out of his nose and then they're both laughing.

(-)

His tongue is feather light on her clit while she rolls her hips towards his mouth. He knows how to to start it off low and build the intensity. She doesn't like to come too fast, wants it drawn out. Slow. He can do slow. This is something they have more experience at then actual penetration and he's kind of happy that they did this first. Jeremy's learned Bonnie's easy to read once they get into it, she's not hard to please either, but she's really shy and he isn't. So he picks up he slack, pushes so she can pull, until they find a balance that's good for them. And every time she relaxes with him enough to let him do this, to vocalize her want, it's one small step in the right direction.

Bonnie's hands are trailing down his arms that are locked around her legs. No hands. She doesn't like to be fingered, just tongue. He's applying more pressure and she's groaning. Bringing his tongue down just for a second he pushes it into her. Collecting the wet isn't an easy feat; she's slippery, not too wet if that's a thing. Wet enough to make it harder to get any friction. Making his way back up he sucks flesh into his mouth. Harder flicks.

Her fist grabs his hair, her voice deeper than usual. "_Stay_." A chorus of _yesyesyes's_ follow.

Her head falls back. Mouth open and sipping at air until an exaggerated sigh_ slips from her lips. He slows down until her fingers dig into his skin._

Bonnie pulls him up and kisses him as she usually does. Full. Deep. It's seconds between the kiss ending and Jeremy's rolling on the condom. When he sinks into her he sighs.

**-X-**

He's just kind of overwhelmed by her. Not just because her body is arching up into his and she's whispering his name like a drawn out spell—that helps though. She's Bonnie and that explains it. She is overwhelming. Sometimes he just feels lucky to be in her presence because she is...otherworldly. Yeah. _Otherworldly._ She's at least from a different plane.

God, _he is so high_.

It's hard for him to wrap his mind around her wanting spending time on planet Earth, with him, when he's sober, but now everything seems so…so…surreal. Bonnie. His older sister's best friend. The witch.

_Bonnie._

He keeps going through the concept in his head like a rubix cube, trying to line up all the squares but he can't. Maybe this puzzle's not meant to be solved, maybe he can't solve it because she'd naked and her blunt nails are digging into his skin and she's writhing the way she is. It's distracting. She's distracting.

He likes being distracted.

Why she wants to distract him is beyond him but he still can't really believe it. Tyler's always telling him he's so whipped, and he is.

So?

Is it wrong that he likes her so much and that even with all of the supernatural stuff she's so…_normal_. Bonnie's with him and only him and she's not using him to get anything. She genuinely likes him. He's not used this normalcy, there's either the back and forth he had with Vicki or the mutually manipulative thing he had with Anna. He loved them both but they weren't the healthiest relationships. She brought him back from the dead; being whipped is the least he can do.

They're skin to skin. There's this electricity where they touch, it's not an unpleasant feeling. He's like a sponge soaking up the excess energy. That sounds parasitic. It's more like osmosis, he thinks. He's good at science he should have a term for this. That's all he can focus on. He's too aware of her, too into his own head.

It feels like he's getting a chance to visit her realm for just a short while, to be on her plane. It's overwhelming.

She's overwhelming.

Jeremy's hand travels what feels like miles down her body until he reaches the outside of her knee. What feels like years later he dances uncoordinated digits across the skin bringing her leg around his back. Her clutch on him shifts and he groans. Thankfully, she lifts the other one on her own. Her ankles cross in the dip of his back, arms tightening around neck as his strokes quicken.

(-)

Bonnie watches him with this intensity that's scary. The intensity she attributes to Jeremy. He's staring at her now and that look he gives her, the one that makes her feel like she's hung the moon—she's giving it back. She just knows she is. Bonnie's so guarded and she can't help it, but now, here, her defenses are down.

Exposed.

Open.

It's a good feeling.

**Every.** _single_. **touch**. is magnified on her end. He brings forth a hand to cup her face, long fingertips brushing across her cheek and she swears she can feel every groove.

F_ingerprints are like snowflakes, no two are alike. It makes sense, because nobody is like Jeremy. _

He presses his lips to her and she's opening his mouth with her tongue sighing when he allows her entrance. Slow and deep.

The room is dark, the sun set hours ago. It feels like they've been kissing for hours. They were smoking and they were kissing.

It's like they never stopped kissing.

Somehow they'd undressed but she doesn't remember them not kissing. He grabbed a condom but she's sure there wasn't a pause in their kissing. He filled her up all the way to heart, not literally, of course not literally, she thinks, but they didn't stop kissing.

They had to stop kissing. But somehow he's inside her, so deep, he's touching her heart and she's so in love it hurts. He slides into her particular slow and she moans.

Okay maybe it doesn't hurt.

He's mouthing at her neck when he starts to groan into the skin. She giggles at the vibrations. His hand creeps down between them finding a place in the seam of her. Skilled movements force her mouth to inelegantly hang open. Her sighing becomes labored, small grunts pushed from her lips until her neck tilts back against the pillow and she begins to shake. Her arms drop from his neck and down to fist the sheets.

Jeremy stops pumping but works his hand and she rides the wave until she's too sensitive. Her arms find neck again. Lips find his mouth. Giving her hips a stir she jump stars the process. He begins to move again. Fast, sawing strokes that she can't help but to hump him back.

He whispers her name when he comes.

**-X-**

They've been laying for what seems like hours but can't be since they're still high from the marijuana; still high from their exertions. Bonnie's hungry. She's also tired and laziness may decide which is more important. Sleep ends up being more important.

It's around four am when Bonnie wakes to find Jeremy laying on her chest. His head is pressed into her breast from where she'd been playing with his hair. Somehow she just knows he up. She starts running the strands through her fingers.

"Do you think you should be smoking?"

"It's too late for that."

"No….look at me… I mean…you're okay right? I shouldn't be worried, this was just for fun right, not to …cope?"

Sighing, "it's not the same as it was when my parents died. I don't want to say that I'm getting used to losing people…but it's getting easier to deal with." Bonnie presses her lips to his hair. "I don't think it's supposed to get easier, Bonnie."

She rubs her hand down his back. "No. It's not."

**-X-**

It late in the day when she wakes up. Jeremy's sitting at his desk scribbling in his sketchbook. "Why'd you let me sleep so late?"

Looking over his shoulder and smiling at her nudity he says, "because you were obviously tired…it's the summer."

"Well that doesn't matter because your sister will be home and I'm sorry but having an audience as I take my walk of shame isn't something I'll look back fondly on."

"It's not a big deal…you're not really ashamed are you?"

"Of course I'm not. It's just, it's a big deal to me."

She lays back and stretches. For someone just complaining she doesn't want to get up.

"No nightmares?"

Bonnie groans into the pillowcase. No. None. But she doesn't want to talk about it because he'll ultimately ask her what they're about and she doesn't want to go there.

Her stomach audibly growls and she's saved.

"Get dressed. I'll make you something to eat." Bonnie slips on her clothes from yesterday. She needs a bath but she'd prefer to take one at home. Slipping on the denim shorts and her tee shirt she slides her feet into the sandals. "I should just go home."

"Stay. Please?" He walks over to her, wrapping his arm around her middle. Lifting on the tips of her toes she kisses him. "I'll come back later."

Jeremy's going to kiss her again when there's a knock on the door that causes them to jump. "Yeah?"

"It's Ric."

"_Okay?_" He doesn't attempt to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

(-)

Jeremy doesn't know what his deal with Ric is lately. He's always liked the dude, but this whole guardian thing is odd. Bonnie sits back on the bed, at least this way he doesn't have to see her and she doesn't have to deal with him. Jeremy goes to the door, cracking it just a little. "Glad to see you're alive."

"At this point, is that really a joke?" Ric laughs only for the truth in it. "I'm fine."

"Jeremy. I'm not trying to be on your case, but I can smell the pot from outside the door…you shouldn't be smoking…you've got…your whole life ahead of you."

"Got it." He tries to close the door but Ric's hand moves out to stop it.

"Think about your brain cells…and Elena."

Chuckling Jeremy replies, "Dude you really suck at this."

"I know. But yeah I know you've been having a hard time and if you need to talk to somebody I'm here."

"I know. This is not a downward spiral, okay. I'll let you know if that's where it's going. It was just recreational."

(-)

Bonnie can't see hear what Ric says from the sound of her heart pounding in her ears but it's enough to get him to leave the door and that's fine with her.

**-X-**

Ten minutes later Bonnie tip toes down the stairs behind Jeremy. Ric's door is closed and Elena's not home yet. However, Ric is not inside the closed room because he's in the kitchen making a sandwich when they walk by. Her heart starts to race, again. This is exactly why she prefers Jeremy coming over her house. There's almost no parental supervision.

Bonnie ignores her instincts of running out the door instead she does a slight wave and Ric waves back . Then she waits a couple before speed walking to the exit.

Jeremy laughs.

"See. It wasn't that bad."

Not that good either.

* * *

**A/N: This was not supposed to be multi-chaptered at all since I hate commitment, however after 20K words it's kind of ridiculous to put it out as a one shot. As of now I'm not finished and I have no set posting schedule but if it's done and edited I'll post it. I don't plan on it being more than five or six chapters (and my chapters are usually around 4000 words) but we'll see (it'll end up be around ten I know it). In hindsight this section is very Beremy-centric but Tyler's a major part of the story. It's just we got very few happy Beremy moments in the beginning of their relationship (which came out of nowhere) and it ended out of nowhere with some OOC writing for Jeremy, and I feel like we should've at least had the summer (since Bonnie didn't do anything while she was away).**

**I really just hate a majority of season 3 and 4 tbh and I'm just changing what I felt needed to be changed. I started writing this towards the end of season 3 but I never finished it and I'm happy since I see that nothing I thought was going to happen to those 3 did. Tyler and Jeremy had really good setups last season that fell flat so a lot this is me trying to flesh them out.**

**Please let me know if the POV switching is confusing. As of now I've been trying to cut down on that using little marks (-) to indicate the change and the (-X-) indicate there's a period of time passing, but not a scenery change.**

**I also despise that summary but all my summaries sound like third grade writing prompts so for now I'll leave it as is.**

**I have no beta and all mistakes are mine.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Normal

**A/n: Please excuse all the typos. I will be editing it later. I don't have a beta so all mistakes are my own.**

* * *

Bonnie spends the next few days working on finding a spell that could possibly kill a hybrid, and an Original – _permanently_. That involves reading through all the grimores she's gotten for anything that sounds like it could work. Caroline's gone to visit her dad and his boyfriend, and Elena's been training with Alaric so she's been on her own besides Jeremy in this. She and the girls haven't spent that much time together all summer and she'd worry if there weren't bigger things at hand.

Her father's back in town so she's been working at her grams. It took her a couple days but the electricity and water are back on so it's tolerable. It's still kind of dusty, which she promises she'll take of when she's less busy, and the grass in the front lawn is up to her knees, which Jeremy promised he'd take care of when he figures out how to work her grams ancient lawn mover.

However the fridge is stocked with snacks and the ceiling fans work and that's all she really needs right now.

Jeremy's been coming over after work before she has to make her way back to her dad's. He's good company and great a research. Bonnie looks up from her book. You're such a nerd."

"Why does everybody think that?"

"Because you are."

No luck so far and she's not expecting anything. All the spells are starting to bleed together. This is becoming a chore. When she feels like screaming Jeremy's hand is taking away the book. "Wanna hang out tomorrow before I go in, take a day off?"

She looks up and smiles. "Sure."

(-)

Jeremy's played baseball ever since he could pick up a bat and after his parents died he dropped it completely. He' not a jock, not a huge fan of playing nice with people he doesn't like, but he was good once. Now, he doesn't have much time to play, but he's started up again. It's just good to do something other than think about how much your loved ones are in danger.

Bonnie's sneakers are planted on the felt turf. Jeremy kicks them apart a little more to perfect her stance. He places his hands on her back and straightens it. Bonnie's holding the bat too high. "Bring it down." His arms move up to guide her swing, his head in the area above her shoulder, helmet slightly knocking against hers mid swing. "Like that."

The ball comes flying out of the machine and the bat smacks it to the right.

"See."

She looks back, a little smile on her face and she snuggles tighter into the small space between their bodies. "Show me again. _I don't think I got it_."

-X-

Jeremy's working tonight, the first Thursday all summer and Bonnie's surprisingly upset about it. They'd been going to the discount movie on Thursdays, which is just an older movie that missed when they were fighting for their lives. It's becoming a ritual.

Tyler always comes, it's a group date. He's the one who likes a reasonable amount of butter on his popcorn so they end up sharing while Jeremy gets his own that he drowns in a gallon of the stuff.

"Are you still going to the movies tonight?"

"Not by myself."

"You can go with Tyler." Bonnie hold's in the groan that she wants to make. Tyler's cool but they aren't close enough to hang out without Jeremy. "Why would I do that?"

"So you guys won't miss it."

"Elena and Caroline can't come."

"So?"

"It'll be weird."

"You've known him longer than you've known me."

"Actually I've known you since you were born and story has it that I didn't meet Tyler until we we're three."

"_Bonnie_."

"_Jeremy_."

"It's not weird that I want my best friend and my girlfriend to get along. It won't kill you and you still want to go. I'll be there in spirit…and the two of you can bond over dry tasteless popcorn."

"Shut up."

"You have his number right?"

"Yeah."

-X-

She's known Tyler all her life, conversation should be easy. However this is awkward. The air conditioned theatre is empty besides three preteens in the very back. It's early enough that the previews haven't even started running and the lights are still on.

"Where is everybody?" Bonnie bites into a red candy rope.

"The Fell's thing remember?" Since Caroline's not in town she doesn't feel the need to go, she doesn't have anyone pressuring her to go.

"I didn't. Half the summer is over already?"

"Apparently." The founder's festival marked off the beginning of the summer. The teenage Fell's always threw a party in the middle and the Lockwood's ended it with a ball. That was the gauge of how much time they have left before school. Bonnie always missed the festival when she went to visit family. She'd be back for the party, and probably out of town for the ball.

"Did you want to go?"

"I mean, we can but we did already pay for the movie."

"If you want you $2 back I'll reimburse you." She scoffs.

"Let's go."

* * *

There's music, underage drinking and the air smells of smoke.

It's a party.

Bonnie and Tyler fill their cups full of beer and take a seat on a fallen tree trunk. She pulls out her phone and sends Jeremy a text about their change in plans. "You don't have to babysit me…if you want to go hang with somebody else I'm cool with that."

"I'm good."

At least at the movies they wouldn't be expected to talk and now it's kind of weird if they don't. Tyler's always been nice to her, even though he's been an asshole since the beginning of time, so there's that. And he and Caroline had gotten close for a while, there has to be something they have in common that they can talk about. Football season was forever ago so there's that, and Tyler knows very little about magic so there's not much to talk about.

_Jeremy._

They share Jeremy in common.

"Does Jeremy talk about me?" It's not what she wanted to say, she didn't know what to say, but it's a start.

Tyler looks at her with a look of disbelief and he looks like he might roll his eyes. "All the time." She tries to hide her smile.

"What does he say?"

"Why would I tell you?"

"Because I'll tell you what he says about you."

Tyler contemplates it he doesn't know why he finds this deal so intriguing. He could just ask Jeremy if he wanted to. Jeremy's not big on secrets. He's got too much of a conscience for that. "What does he say?"

"You're his first real best friend, which is weird because I remember when you hated each other…that you're still a dick... and you used to make fun of how he dressed in his punk phase but he's seen the clothes in your closet and you have no room to talk." Tyler chuckles. They're best friends and at one point he couldn't see Matt not filling that position.

"Tell me what he's told you."

"He likes you and you know that," he takes a sip of his beer, " he thinks your magic is cool, he's really into that…not just magic but you doing magic…and he thinks you two are boning way too much."

Bonnie's smile is cut off by the rolling of her eyes. "He didn't say that…wait, does he talk to you about our…boning?"

When his face breaks out into a grin she wants to slap him. "No. It's not like he'd say anything anyway. He just looks so stupid afterwards you just know it's happened." Bonnie wants to protest, instead she laughs.

"Hold on have you asked him about it?"

"For scientific purposes only, of course."

"Of course."

-X-

After that conversation flows easy and so does the alcohol.

_Do you even like me Bonnie?_

_**I don't dislike you**_… do you like me?

_I always thought you were the least stuck up girl in our circle._

They don't drink anything heavy just beer, and they're a few cups in when they realize they'll either have to walk home or bum a ride with Jeremy when he gets off. He's closing with Matt so when he texts them he'll meet them there they expect it to be a lot earlier.

Bonnie realizes how drunk she is when she watches Tyler do a keg stand and she's hears herself telling him she can outlast him. The next thing she knows Tyler and some kid Tyler keeps calling Greenburg (but she's sure that's isn't his name) are holding her legs as she supports her weight on a keg. She hasn't done one of these since, probably since the night Elena and Jeremy's parents died. It's been a while since she didn't feel like she had to be the responsible one. Bonnie doesn't blame anyone for that, it's just hard for her to completely relax when somebody can end up dead, but she just wants things to be normal. She wants to do normal teenage things, Caroline and Elena aren't here, sadly that makes it easier to do. The only person she's has to worry about is her.

As soon as they gracefully help her back on her feet she realizes how she needs to be the responsible one, because this, is out of control. Her tolerance is a lot higher now that she's a witch, which may be why her grandmother could drink anybody under the table. In a couple of hours she'll be sober enough to get them home but there's probably only an hour before the sheriff comes and breaks it up. It happens every year like clockwork. She'd rather not bum a ride with the sheriff who will want to speak with her dad.

Leaning over to support herself on Tyler. "I don't know who won." Laughing Tyler wraps his arm around her.

"I didn't even count."

-X-

Tyler almost gets in a fight with a six foot junior with arms as big as hishead. It's a drunken altercation that started when Tyler leans on his car for support. Tyler refuses to apologize and Bonnie watches the vein in his forehead threaten to pop before _thinks_ she should intervene.

He tosses a full keg about 50 feet before she _knows_ she should.

(-)

Tyler's losing it. Red fills his vision. and he's dangling a kid taller than him dangling off the ground. His hands are fisted in his shirt. He wants to pummel him. Instinct tells him to give into it's –it's natural. _Normal_. He'll feel better. A small part of him that realizes this is a horrible idea, but it's so hard to fight the urge.

It's scary that it doesn't take all that much to piss him off. That even after all this hard work he hasn't fixed himself and all it takes is a little bit of alcohol to for him to not be on top of it. He's learned to handle himself. He knows how to talk himself down, do the things Mason taught him, but even with all of that he still can feel like this.

He's not fixed.

He's pretending that he is because it makes people like him more, but this will always be a part of him and he's scared. He doesn't want to be like his father who was so angry all the time, who just channeled his anger toward Tyler. He doesn't want to subject anyone else to that, even if it makes it easier. Mason was so chill and happy all of the time and Tyler can't even imagine that. Turning was supposed to take this away. It's unfair that he's' being punished every month for the rest of his life, yet he still feels like this. Hurting people shouldn't feel like a relief but it does.

He blacks out. He can't really hear what the kid is saying but he feels Bonnie's palm against his shoulder. "Tyler stop."

It's in a stern voice, a command almost, and his eyes make their way down to her face. "Stop. You're not going to do this." Same tone. It's the tone he's notices.

"You're going to put him down and we're going to leave." He looks between her and the guy he's holding. Then there's a sharp pain where she's touching his shoulder . That pain sobers him enough to assess the situation. Three's a crowd, a bunch of nobodies who he's known his entire life who are just interested in a fight, horrible music still playing, and then there's Bonnie who's staring at him, she's drunk, the way her face is relaxed, her eyes, prove it. But the pain she's administering the sharp ache running up his spine now is amplifying. All he can focus on is the pain. He drops the guy and watches him scramble back his eyes still on her.

She's talking again and now he can ignore the pounding of his heart in his chest to hear her. The pain stops.

"It's time to go." She locks her arm into his.

They set off on foot.

"Shouldn't you have a ridiculous tolerance, you know being a…" she lowers her voice, "werewolf?" He does something that resembles a nod and mimics her tone.

"Shouldn't you have a rid….ridiculous tolerance being a witch?"

She does the same but her eyes never leave his skin.

"What?"

"Where's your shirt?"

He begins to take in their surroundings. There aren't many lights on this street to begin with but it's pretty dark on this side of town. They're both pretty stable to be as drunk as they are and Tyler's glad that the streets are so empty at night in this town. He and the witch have been walking straight, well not exactly straight, down the middle of the road for about a mile until he realizes that they're walking in the opposite direction of their houses.

He doesn't know where his shirt is and they're walking in the wrong direction.

"Shit."

She's laughing now deep from her chest; it's cut off by a dog walking across the road. The dog pays them very little, if any attention and continues walking and she starts laughing again.

Bonnie must realize their predicament because she walks over to the curb and has a seat.

"Call Jeremy."

-X-

Jeremy picks them up on the side of the road and Tyler feels like a child waiting for his parents after school. "You guys do know it's not even ten yet."

Bonnie groans in the back seat and Jeremy laughs for at least three lights. Tyler counts them.

"Well it looks like you guys had fun."

it was. It's the most normal night she's had in a while.

* * *

They're gonna slumber it. They haven't done it in a while and it's long overdue. Caroline's back from her dad's and Elena's back from her trip. The boys are at Elena's and Bonnie's never liked holding sleepovers at her place, the whole not having a mom to help host really got to her when she was younger, especially when compared to how involved her friends mothers were , so it's never really an option, at least a planned one anyway. The sheriff's working late so the girl are blasting music in the Forbes' living room and dancing until Caroline gets a call about a complaint from her mom to turn it down.

Bonnie and Elena plop down onto the couch as she reassures her mother that they'll behave.

"I can't believe somebody called in on us."

Elena takes a sip of her coke and Bonnie shrugs. It's not a big deal. They've got movies and snacks and booze, so much booze it's ridiculous and being told to keep it down won't kill them.

"My neighbors tattled on me to my mother. Who does that?"

Elena motions to Caroline, "Pass me that bottle." The ice crackles as she pours the vodka over it. Pouring the soda over it she sips. Caroline disappears in the kitchen and Bonnie can hear kernels popping in the microwave. Minutes later she's back and there's a bowl being passed between them and some made for tv movie playing on the TV.

Elena frowns. "Popcorn and vodka don't mix."

"Nope."

Elena takes another drink. "They really don't mix."

Caroline starts laughing first. "And you still keep drinking it."

"It's like I can't stop." She stuffs her mouth full of popcorn.

They're all laughing and then Elena's hogging the bowl, Caroline's talking back to the TV all while Bonnie's sitting on the recliner wrapped up in a cheer blanket. There's not enough of a breeze to keep the windows open and the AC is blasting . It's such a normal summer night.

They aren't talking about the Salvatores, or any boys in general. Bonnie's not attached to Jeremy at the hip and can stand being away from him for longer than five minutes, Caroline's given off boys (for this week) and Elena's not talking about Stefan. Not that that's not a big elephant in the room. She's still looking for him and after Bonnie's failed attempt at a locator spell, she'd spent most of her time when she wasn't hanging out with Damon looking for him. But if she doesn't bring it up there's this silent agreement that nobody else will.

It's a good agreement.

All she wants is to have normal conversations with her best friends and a seemingly normal summer. It seems like she might get it.

* * *

Tyler mom stops at the deli for lunch and picks up his favorite sub. They eat it in his father's old office, her new office, while she sips on sweet tea with too much ice instead of her fruity sparkling waters, and he downs a coke. Tyler thinks that this is because she's acknowledging the significance of this day, because she wants his day to be as good as it can be for him, but he soon realizes there's no reasoning. It's just because. And the sentiment is nice, but she doesn't realize that tonight is the one day out of the month he's going to break every bone in his body and that he'll have to do it alone; he doesn't want to do it alone. However, he's happy that she's not burdened with scheduling her life around the full moon like he is. He'd still like to have someone there for support.

But he doesn't because it feels selfish to call Caroline and just ask her to be there when the last run in she had with werewolves were those trying to kill her, the ones he barely stopped from killing her, so he sucks it up and when his mother goes back to work he leaves to chases his coke down with wolfsbane tea, adding a little lemon, more than a little sugar, trying to make it easier to swallow.

He's antsy all day, easily annoyed. So when he gets a call from a couple guys from the football team asking him if he wants to go to the lake he declines even though he could still make it and leave early enough. He's just really afraid to be around people during the full moon when his temper is so much harder to control. ~Asu to. "I can't…I'm doing stuff for my mom." He wishes he could go. He's never really considered these guys friends, but it's easy enough to pretend. Tyler had separated himself from them during the school year, and they had noticed, but it wasn't hard to get back in their good graces. Last week they'd gone to the lake, apparently it was a weekly thing. He'd brought a six pack. All was well. No big deal. They'd get over him not being there tonight.

Tyler grabs his bag. It's empty other than an extra bottle of tea and a pair of shorts.

-X-

He comes to lying on the ground body aching. He doesn't move for a few minutes just trying to collect his senses. Groaning he pulls himself to a stand, swaying on his feet. After wiping the dirt from his hands he braces himself against the gate while the gate. Clumsy fingers work to unlock the chains on the door. He's steadies himself enough to slide on a pair of shorts.

The summer air cools the sweat on his skin on the walk back. It takes twice the time get home and when he does the sky is pale and the sun is threatening to rise.

He can hear his mother getting ready for her day when he walks past her room. The door is open but she's fumbling around in the bathroom. He stands at the threshold and breathes in. His senses are strong enough that he can still smell the undercurrent of his father's cologne that lingers in the room. It's been months but it's still there. There are very few places that still hold the man's scent but it's strongest in there.

Thinking about his father is normal after the turn, it opens up so many questions that he knows will go unanswered. His father had to know he carried the gene, didn't he? And why wouldn't he let Tyler know about it if he did? Was his father so angry towards him due to the gene, or was he just naturally a dick? Not that the first is an excuse but he can understand it. He needs to stop thinking about it.

His dad is dead.

Mason is dead too and he's never been particularly close with the family on his father's side.

He makes it to his room before she can see him like this. A shower is calling is name and he's sure he can sleep for days after this. His stomach is rumbling and he knows he could scarf down at least a couple steaks. He needs to eat, to replenish what was lost during the turn. Protein seems the way to go and if he can drag himself back downstairs after his wash he'll find some.

He can almost smell bacon.

He's all the way inside the room when he realizes Jeremy is sitting on his bed. There's a moments pause before Jeremy speaks, like he's looking for the right words, "you look like shit warmed over."

Tyler laughs, a dry chuckle. "I'm not even exaggerating."

"I believe you and I'm not gonna pretend that I appreciate your honesty."

"That's fine. What else are friends for if they can't tell you the truth?"

Jeremy motions towards the paper bag on his desk. "I brought you like five breakfast biscuits from the shop on main if you're hungry. There were six but I'd underestimated how hungry I was and overestimated how long you were gonna be gone." He doesn't ask if his mom let him in or how long he'd been there he just halfheartedly smiles.

"I'm gonna take a shower first." Jeremy just nods and grabs the remote off the bed.

"I'll be here."

(-)

Jeremy's hasn't been waiting on Tyler for long before he arrives. He'd contemplated coming last night when he'd realized what day it was.

He and Matt were hanging out after work just watching TV at his house and when Matt got up to leave. Jeremy walked him outside the full moon was lighting up the driveway, and then not coming wasn't an option. But he'd figured Tyler was already locked up and ringing the doorbell at the Lockwood's in the middle of the night didn't sound like a good idea.

But letting your friends go through something like this alone doesn't sound like a good idea either. So he dragged himself out of bed and picked up breakfast and waited.

(-)

Tyler's still in the bathroom long after the shower stops, and Jeremy decides to check on him. When he's a foot away from the door it flies open.

"You alright?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

The hours after the turn are the hardest to get over because the transformation is still fresh in his memory. He still can smell the dust of the room. The feel of his bones knitting back together is still in the forefront of his mind. It takes him a while to pull it all together.

Jeremy's standing outside the door when he opens it and he watches his friend try to mask his worry.

"I'm good…seriously." Jeremy takes a few steps back and conspicuously looks him over.

"Okay…um…do you need a hug or something?"

Tyler kind of wants to laugh, kinda wants to take him up on the offer.

"I know that I would if I had…I mean it's not like I have any friends to tell if you're worried about your rep." Tyler does laugh this time and when Jeremy pulls him into a hug he takes it.

* * *

It's supposed to be a weekend getaway. It's supposed to be just the two of them.

It's not.

Somehow Elena hears them talking about it, and she thinks it's a great idea and invites herself. Bonnie can't say no, and Jeremy definitely can but he sees how happy she is about it and he stops himself. She's just gotten back from some unsuccessful Stefan-related trip and it's the first time she' smiled since then. He can suck it up.

"Damon can't come."

"I don't want him to."

Elena ends us inviting Caroline and Caroline wants to bring Matt, _they're totally not dating, they're just friends btw_, so it's only right that Jeremy invites Tyler. If it's going to be a group thing, it should be the whole group.

Jeremy hadn't planned on that being an issue, but it is. When he and Matt are packing his truck with the food they're taking and the girls are sitting on the hood of Jeremy's car, Tyler pulls up to the curb. Matt looks to him, "what's he doing here?"

Sliding the cooler back he shrugs. "He's coming with us."

"I see that but why?"

"He's my friend too and it won't kill you to be in the same space with him for a few days. Look you don't have to talk to him if you don't want to."

"I won't."

"Fine. It's settled." Jeremy has better things to do than to worry about Matt and Tyler's petty arguments.

He looks over at Bonnie who's gotten of the hood and he can tell that she's having the same conversation with Caroline. He gives her a sympathetic smile.

(-)

Tyler can feel the tension as he walks up the driveway. Elena's the first to say hi to him. Matt looks him over but doesn't speak and Tyler wants to apologize, again, for kissing his mom (he doesn't think he's still upset about that but it couldn't hurt), or liking Caroline or whatever, anything to keep his friend from looking at him like he's the biggest disappointment in the world. It won't mean anything so he ignores him ignoring him and waves at Bonnie. She waves back and Caroline doesn't even look his way. He wants to apologize to her too, but really it's not much he can say. So he doesn't.

Jeremy cuffs the back of his neck in his palm. "You should ride with us."

-X-

The ride to the lake house takes no time. Caroline and Matt ride together in his truck, and the rest pile into Jeremy's car and once they get there the first twenty minutes is spent unloading and getting settled in.

Caroline decides that there should be no co-ed sleeping arrangements. Later she'll tell Bonnie it's because Elena's guy is gone and she feels bad about that. Bonnie doesn't bring up that she doesn't have a guy either since she and Matt aren't dating, but she leaves it be. "And Tyler could sleep outside for all I care."

They know. She's made it clear.

In order to keep the arguing down everybody just goes with it. Bonnie naturally wants to sleep with Jeremy but in the three bedroom house it's not a possibility. Matt refuses to sleep with Tyler, he doesn't verbalize it in front of the group, he does, but it's clear that it shouldn't be done. Jeremy ends up offering up his room and he and Tyler end up bunking together.

The three girls end up sleeping together in the king sized bed in the big bedroom. They've done it before and they'll do it again and thankfully at the moment none of them are fighting.

Romantic getaway it is not but it's still nice to be hanging out with her friends. They've been through so much and it's cool when they actually get to do teenage stuff together.

-X-

The first morning the Gilberts sneak off to go fishing way before Bonnie wakes up. She's usually up the earliest now being the lightest sleeper and nightmares tend to cut her nights shorts. Last night there were no nightmares, but the unfamiliarity of the bed made it harder to get to sleep. She wakes up last, Caroline's up and her scented body wash can still be smelled in the room.

Bonnie takes a quick shower and looks for her friends. Matt and Caroline are in the kitchen laughing and preparing food for the grill. She says a quick hello and Caroline asks her if she's hungry.

"We had eggs for breakfast but if you don't want that I can make you some toast and bacon."

"That'd be great."

She can't really tell if Matt and Caroline are dating again, but they have been spending a lot of time together, evident by their comfort with one another. Bonnie doesn't fail to notice the smiles shared between them while Caroline scrambles her eggs. She doesn't comment on it.

Bonnie sits at the small wooden table eating buttered toast with a glass of juice. The bacon is greasy on her lips, salty on her tongue.

"What are we doing today?"

Matt takes a break shaping hamburger patties to look back at the table. " Swimming later. Then we're gonna light up the grill. Sound good?"

Sounds _normal_.

"Yeah it does."

Hopefully she could get in a little bit of alone time with Jeremy. While it's cool to be here with her friends this was originally supposed to be their thing. And Caroline who usually schedules things down to the second seems content with letting things slide (besides the sleeping arrangements) so it's likely that they can sneak away at least for a few hours.

"Is Tyler up?" Caroline rolls her eyes and points towards the window. "He's outside." That's the most she'll get out of either of them and she takes one last bite of her toast and places the plate in the sink. "Thanks." Kissing Caroline on the cheek she makes her way outside.

She finds Tyler sitting on the edge of the dock looking out at the water. Elena and Jeremy are dots in the distance. Taking a seat beside him, she runs her fingers through her hair, pulling it up into a ponytail. Heat is licking at skin.

The sun is high and there's no shade to be found. Tyler contemplates turning around and going back to the air conditioned cabin but then he would only be met with Caroline and Matt ignoring him. He'd take his chances of suffering a heat stroke.

She's fanning her face when she looks over to him. Sweat is dripping down his brow and he wipes it away with the back of his hand. "You're making me hot."

"That has nothing to do with the fact that it's a thousand degrees out." Bonnie chuckles at his annoyance. "We can go back in."

"I'd rather not." She wouldn't either. While she understands why Caroline and Matt (mainly Caroline) are upset, she thinks they (mainly Matt) may be taking it too far, but it's not her place to interfere.

Bonnie's closes her eyes and concentrates.

"You alright?" She silences him with a hand.

A few seconds later a blanket appears in her lap. Slowly but surely her magic is coming back to her. "Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"Just come on."

Bonnie's dragging them towards the bank where the trees are denser.

Pointing to where she wants the blanket spread she closes her eyes again. A gust of wind blows through Tyler's hair and then he smells magic. Green eyes find his for a few seconds and her pupils are dilated. Eyes shining. Leaf shaped shadows casting lines across her skin.

Tree limbs curtsey at Bonnie's presence, greenery bowing to her will.

To watch her like this seems voyeuristic because she's so…exposed. It makes him uncomfortable. He turns his head until it feels like Bonnie's pulled back. It could be in his head but eventually he's able to meet her eyes again. She smiles.

The canopy she's created is ample shade bringing the temperature down to something bearable. There's almost no light making it past the thick leaves. She stretches out on the blanket and after she stares at him for a while he lays down beside her.

He's experienced the backlash of Bonnie's magic but never really seenit. "That's so cool."

She closes her eyes and sighs. "I know."

(-)

He's sitting on the boat with Elena both decked out in their fishing attire. He hates fishing but it reminds them of their dad. Rising with sun to sit in a huge wooden shoe to catch fish the neither one of them know how to cleant or cook is definitely not his idea of fun but Elena's face lights up when he suggests it and it's worth it.

He thinks funny that things his parents loved that he once hated now have fond memories attached to them.

They're sitting in the boat for less than an hour before Elena feels her first tug. "Jere!" She's good at this and she always has been. Before he can sit down his pole, she's reeling hers in and there's a flopping, wriggling fish he couldn't distinguish from any other flopping wriggling fish but she's smiling hard and he's smiling back.

"Let me take a picture." Reaching inside of the basket he finds the camera. "Okay. On three. One. Two. Three." They've decided that anything they catch will go back in the lake. Elena tosses the fix overboard and he turns the camera to show her big grin. "This is so much fun."

Jeremy worries about her. She's his only sister. She's his only family. He loves her. But Elena's in a place right now he doesn't understand. His sister isn't grieving, not the way she normally does. She's pretending that everything is fine and they hadn't lost more people close to them, and she's throwing all her energy into finding Stefan. He definitely can't tell her how to cope considering how fucked up he was after his parents died, but this can't be healthy.

Elena spends so much time with Damon and Alaric it's weird. She's always kind of been the lets-hang-out-and-suffocate-each-other type and now she's never there. When he wants to hang out she's nowhere to be found, or she's going on road trips with her ex's brother and their dead aunt's boyfriend. It's not normal.

"Elena you know I love you right?" She looks a little surprised at the change in conversation.

"Yeah. I love you too."

"I really do love you, no matter what…you can talk to me about anything and I want to be there for you." She smiles. "I know."

As soon as the words leave his lips he he sees her, standing beside Elena. He blinks to make sure, but it's definitely Vicki.

He's been in the sun too long.

"I just wanted to be sure."

-X-

She asks him about the transformation. Jeremy wasn't that forthcoming, which was understandable, it wasn't his story to tell, but Bonnie had been worried.

"I can't say it was fun."

"Of course not. I just meant…it's getting easier right?"

"I guess. Mason said that it should. I don't know how long that's supposed to take…and it's not like I can ask him."

He feels Bonnie's draw up at the mention of his uncle. He knows it's likely she was in on it. If Caroline and Jeremy could be, she could. Of course Jeremy wouldn't volunteer that information.

"We're you there when he died?"

Tyler's definitely still angry about his death, to say that he's gotten over it would be a lie, but he wants some sort of closure. He needs to know everything, even the stuff that Jeremy's kept out.

"I wasn't."

He sits up and wraps his arms tight around his legs. Bonnie sits up and pulls on some of the grass. "Did you know that they were going to kill him?"

She could say that they never told her they would, and that would be the truth, but it was inferred. Damon kills everybody and Stefan's no saint either. Mason was helping Katherine and Katherine was clearly marked off in the enemy category, it was bound to happen. There was so much happening then, not that that's an excuse, it's just with the whole moonstone thing and Caroline being a vampire, were a lot to deal with.

"I'm sorry Tyler."

"_But did you know_?"

"No. I didn't know."

"But you knew it was a possibility." He doesn't ask her.

"Yeah."

"And you didn't think to stop them?"

"I'm sorry."

"Was it worth it?"

"It wasn't." She doesn't have to think about it. Katherine was still alive and Klaus had been able to break the binding and now Mason's dead.

"You guys didn't even talk to me about it…I could've helped. You didn't have to torture him." Bonnie watches his fist clench. "I don't understand why none of you thought about me. You've known me longer than you've known them… I know we never been close, but we've known each other our entire lives… I'd think that instill some sort of loyalty… nobody thought about that."

They hadn't and it seemed so hard to admit that. They'd become self-centered, she knows she had. She was just worried about the core group, Caroline hadn't really become a part of it until she'd turned, she'd always worried about her, but letting her in on stuff came later. Tyler still wasn't a part of it. Bonnie hadn't realized that until now. However, Stefan and Damon had become extensions of that group and constant reminders that she hadn't kept up to her promise to keep them safe, keep the town safe. Elena needed them to keep her alive, so she needed them and it was selfish.

There's nothing she can say that'll ease the pain of his loss, nothing that can justify it. "If you never forgive me for that I understand, but I just want you to know it was never the plan for him to die. I knew Damon would hurt him and that's…it's horrible that I turned a blind eye but I swear that's all I thought would happen."

He nods. It's as much as she expects to get.

He changes the subject.

"You think Caroline and Matt are going to ignore me the entire time?"

"They can only try."

They sit until Elena and Jeremy pull into the dock. Tyler and Bonnie beat them to the house; they don't speak on the way back. He's not exactly over it but he doesn't blame her completely. Tyler has genuinely always liked Bonnie so it's difficult to sort out his feelings here.

* * *

They have lunch: burgers and hotdogs. The girls sit on the porch afterwards sticky sweet syrup from popscicles dripping down their wrists. Jeremy finds three decks of fraying Uno cards in a kitchen cabinet which jumpstarts an intense tournament. It starts off Elena against Tyler, Caroline verses Bonnie, and Jeremy against Matt. Elena disappears into the bedroom after her loss, no doubt, to do more research on Stefan. Caroline follows but stays to serve an assortment of dips that she's sure to remind everyone she made from scratch (she made from a packet). Jeremy throws his arm around Bonnie's shoulder after his loss and drinks a beer until she loses against Tyler.

Matt wins like he always does and keeps from talking to Tyler the entire time. Tyler doesn't expect any different.

-X-

Elena and Tyler don't head to the lake after it cools down. Elena hasn't left her room since the game, and Tyler doesn't feel like going. It'd be fine if it was just Jere and Bonnie. It's been like that all summer just the three of them, but the dynamic is weird when Caroline, Matt, and Elena are there so he stays and watches TV.

Jeremy suggest skinny dipping and Caroline thumbs up idea. Bonnie and Matt give a hard no.

They don't do it.

They swim off the bank instead of the dock. \Bonnie and Matt race each other from one tree all the way to another down the lake, the way they used to when the pool closed at nights. Bonnie wins. If she wasn't a witch she'd be a fish.

Jeremy's swinging from a rope tied around a thick tree trunk when they get back. Caroline's doing her weak impression of a synchronized swimmer twirling in the water and trying to persuade Jeremy to be her partner.

Jeremy drops from the rope after he notices Bonnie. He pulls her into his arms and after a little bit of hesitation she relaxes. They're teenagers. It's a very small age range where PDA is okay, and they're living in it, might as well live it up.

So she kisses him. And Caroline and Matt are there which as to make it weird, but it's still Jeremy and she likes the way he holds her waist and the way his lips feel against her.

Jeremy's had inconvenient boners before, but none have been as inconvenient as the one he gets during the romantic getaway turned family vacation. Bonnie's too shy to do anything while they're here, _I don't want anybody to hear us_, even though he knows she wants to, and he can't just tell everybody to leave, but he's kissing her and that's more than he thought would happen. It doesn't go too far though because she places a hand on his bare shoulder to stop him.

"Let's not get carried away."

He pulls back trying to gain his composure. He's walking towards the bank and she's following him. "Are you okay?"

He nods. "I'm good." He points to Caroline and Matt swimming farther out in the lake. "You wanna go in?"

She yells that they're leaving.

-X-

Tyler's asleep on the couch when they get back. Elena's in her room talking to Damon and they know it's Damon by her tone.

They need to shower and Jere tells her she can go first. Rolling her eyes she grabs his hand, "come on."

Bonnie's naked. He's naked. They're showering.

Together.

Her hair is pushed back off her face. Still wet from the lake in the beginning stages of curling.

"Do you think you'd like me if I didn't have magic?" It's a random question and he tries to read her expression and where it comes from.

"What? Bonnie…of course…you don't think that do you?"

She shakes her head. "No. I just wanted to hear you say it." It doesn't feel like a test. It feels honest, like she just wanted to hear him say it.

They're kissing again. His lips insistent against hers. It's not super-heated but it's got some fire behind it and he ends up bracing himself against the shower wall when she backs him into it. He's still hard except now Bonnie's hand snakes between them forming a loose fist around him. She pulls back to watch his face.

The water from the shower is rains on her back. A few streams make it down her front, cascading down the roundness of her chest, crawling towards the drain.

Her hand tightens, just a little. She begins to stroke. It feels amazing but she's so focused on his face it creeps him out a little. His eyes move to her hand working up and down. This is going to be embarrassingly short and when his toes start to curl and his head cracks against the tile he just rides it out.

It's a long ride.

There's a spark, and then then there's an orgasm that continuously feeds off itself. Even after there's no physical evidence of his orgasm his hips won't stop rolling. Bonnie moves to touch his face, her eyes fixed on his. When he tries to speak, tries to ask her what she's done, she says, "you can find a lot of stuff in those grimiores."

When his body is still shaking, pleasure slightly leaning towards pain it stops. Bonnie's holding him up against the wall when she kisses him. He ends up sitting on the edge of the tub until he regains the strength to stand.

* * *

"We're gonna have to earn his trust and start including him in stuff. It's not fair that we don't."

"I agree."

"I feel really horrible Jeremy…I feel like I felt when I told Damon to give Caroline his blood."

"It's not the same."

"It is. I selfishly made a decision that affected someone else and I didn't think about the consequences."

When Tyler walks in on them sitting against the headboard he goes to turn around. Bonnie doesn't want them to be weird around each other. They don't have enough friends for being weird. "Stay, please."

Tyler scoots up beside her in the bed mimicking their position.

They're silent.

Tyler eventually speaks. "I have questions."

Bonnie tells him she'll tell him whatever he wants to know. She expects it's more about Mason.

"What do you know about werewolves? You're a witch, you probably know stuff I can't google."

Bonnie's taken aback by the question. There's not much she does know. "Oh. My Grams told me stories before I knew I was a witch. I didn't really pay much attention because I didn't think they were true."

"And?"

"There's a myth that the curse wasn't supposed to be a curse…there was a witch who loved her husband but he was an angry man. Very angry. The witch was always there to calm him down and he could only be calmed down by her. Then here's one time she didn't make it in time and he ends up killing someone. All the other people in their village decided they should leave and she promised all this stuff but the big one was that she could keep him she tied his soul with the soul of a wolf..."

"Why not something less vicious? Why a wolf?"

"I mean I wasn't there." Tyler scoffs at that. "But wolves aren't naturally….they're predators, yeah, but…she saw a lot of good qualities within wolves that she saw in her husband. They're good hunters…and they're loyal. They take care of their own. They're strong."

He nods his head. "So how is it a curse?"

"That kind of magic is tricky, anything dealing with souls is going to be tricky and magic has consequences. The spell was probably done on a full moon when her power was strongest, or she could've channeled power from it, so that may be why you transform then. She only wanted to take the essence of the wolf but something must of went wrong."

"You think?"

"She cursed her children Ty. I'm sure that she hadn't done it intentionally. It was mean to be a gift. To give him a second chance." Jeremy's quiet on the other side of her. Probably soaking it up so he can cross reference it with something online. He's a nerd like that.

"_A gift_?" The response triggers something that her grandmother told her.

She rarely saw her father's family outside of the summer, but she'd spend months with red Alabaman clay stuck to soles of her sneakers. And before her grandpa died she'd sit on his lap in the rocking chair on the creaky porch, her grandma in the twin seat beside them. She'd be chewing on tobacco while simultaneously talking about anything that came to mind.

"Do you think all gifts come wrapped in a bow? In pretty wrapping paper? You know how many people miss out on their gifts because they're too busy complaining about the packaging?" And she'd think she was just talking to talk but sometimes thing she said stuck. This stuck.

"I don't want to put down your experiences but we're young Tyler. We don't know what's going to happen next…becoming a werewolf changed your life but you don't know it's for the worse."

He sighs and sinks down into the bed. "You can't convince me that our lives are ever going to be normal."

Bonnie sighs. "I know I can't."

She turns to Jeremy. "Do you agree with that, that we'll never be normal?"

There's a heaviness in his voice when he agrees. "I do. Do you?"

"I don't want to," Bonnie doesn't. She has to stay optimistic about this.

Tyler's eyes are on her again, "_but you do_? You know that we can never go back."

"That doesn't mean that's a bad thing. We just have a different normal now...one that works for us."

"If you keep telling yourself that you may start believing it."

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! And thanks to everybody that reviewed and followed and even those who didn't.**

**This should've been up days ago but I started rewatching stuff out of season 3 and there's a lot of stuff that happened that didn't get set up/set up correctly during the hiatus. The season just came back and skimmed over three whole months of stuff, which is annoying and why this chapter got so long. I just want everything to feel like it's supposed to happen.**

**This has a lot of Bonnie/Tyler scenes because they have no relationship in the show at all and the next will have a lot of Jeremy's POV.**


	3. Summer's End

**This is unbeta'd. All mistakes are mine.**

* * *

Summer's almost over and somehow Elena thinks it's the perfect time to go to Chicago to look for Stefan, and unlike her other trips she'd be gone for more than a few hours, _with Damon_. He catches her buying plane tickets online a couple of days ago and now Elena and Jeremy are both going to Chicago. He'd expect Stefan to be at thing of the past by the time school started, but apparently not.

"Where are we going?

He knew she wasn't going to tell him, but she tells him it's because she just needs to get away from Mystic Falls, but he's not naive enough to believe it. This is about Stefan. It's been about Stefan all summer and even though he doesn't like it, he's not going to try and tell her what to do. However. he can make sure that Damon, who will inevitably find a way to be there, doesn't overstep his boundaries, more than he already has.

They're sitting on the plane where Jeremy's squeezed into the middle seat.

"Seriously?"

"I don't see why you didn't splurge for first class? You've got the money. You didn't have to sit back her with us."

The vampire looks over at his sister who's tiny enough that her elbows don't protrude in the aisle. "Why is he here?"

"Because he's my brother and he we haven't been on a family vacation in years."

Jeremy doesn't comment the lie. He's only here because she'd have to admit that Stefan's got her preoccupied and she'd rather save face than have him be right.

"I don't know why you're here considering you're not family."

Damon threatens to snap his neck.

Jeremy threatens to stake him as soon as they touch down.

Elena closes her eyes and falls asleep.

* * *

He's gasping awake in a hotel room with a sheet of paper beside him. Elena's pen marks pressed deep into the pad.

"Sorry about Damon. I wanted to wait until you came to but you've been out for a while. Order room service if you're hungry. We're just going to do a little bit of shopping and I know how much you hate shopping but we can catch a late dinner if you want."

He rolls his eyes.

"I don't know what she sees in him." Vicki is sitting at the edge of the bed biting her bottom lip like he's seen her do a hundred times.

It usually takes a while after he's died to collect his senses, but he thinks that's normal. He's hallucinating. She's not real. He repeats it aloud as if that'll prove his theory.

"I'm hallucinating. You're not real."

She answers back, her voice no different than he remembers it. "I am real."

He feels silly saying it but there's nothing else of his knowledge that could compare. Jeremy looks at the figure at the end of the bed again. She's not transparent, but he asks anyway. "Are you a…_ghost_?"

She stands up, _is she really standing_, he thinks, and shrugs her shoulders. "I guess."

Jeremy calls out her name, as if that'll definitely confirm what she is and when a smile blooms across her face he reaches out to touch her. His hand passes through air and he watches her face drop. She moves away from his reach, walking around the room. Touching_, ghosting_ her fingers along the footboard, the dresser. Vicki tucks her hair behind her ear and the next thing he knows she's back on the bed. Smiling. She always liked to smile.

"I can't believe you can see me."

"How can I? This doesn't make sense."

"I don't know. But I'm glad you can."

-X-

He's sitting on the couch eating a burger he'd ordered too long ago for it to still be good, but Vicki insists that he takes another bite. "For me. I just want to see you eat."

Laughing he takes another bite.

"What I wouldn't give …" She scoots in closer to him and he puts the burger close to her mouth. She nips at air.

"Where are you?"

"The other side."

"That's what it's called?"

She shrugs. "I guess."

"Are you alone?"

Shaking her head she reaches out to touch him again. Nothing. He feels nothing.

"No. There are witches here, a lot of them. Other vampires."

Jeremy feels ashamed to ask but he ends up blurting it out, "Anna?"

"I haven't seen her. I'm sorry"

Sitting back he washes his food down with his coke. "Vicki?"

"Yes."

"I feel really bad that I don't…I know that I would've missed you….did miss you….but "

"But you were compelled."

"How'd you know?"

"I have a lot of spare time on my hands… You were bad Jere. It wasn't pretty to watch."

Bitterly he says, "so I'm told."

Suddenly Vicki disappears. Fifteen minutes later he's watching TV on his bed and she sitting right beside him. "You and Ty are friends now."

"Yeah."

"That's good," waggling her eyebrows she says, "if you guys could've been friends sooner we could've had some fun."

Jeremy laughs at that and it's followed by a yawn. Elena's been gone for a long time, he sends her a text and hopes she answers. Out of the corner of his eyes he sees Vicki's are following the movement of his fingers. "Do you watch him?"

"Who?"

"Tyler."

"Sometimes. I spend a lot of time watching my mom and Matt. I watched Damon a lot before I realized that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't actually kill him."

"I know that feeling," follows his scoff.

His phone lights up on the bedspread and he's hoping she'll say she's close. He won't go to sleep until she's back, but he's always so exhausted after he dies, and he's tired that most of the times he has it's been because of Damon.

Bonnie's name and pictures fill the LED screen and his face lights up. When he looks over to tell Vicki who it is he finds himself alone again.

"Hey."

"Hey."

He's happy to hear her voice. There's a little tiredness in it. Like she's in bed, maybe? He know she won't tell him if she's done something dangerous, which is usually the case, so he won't ask, for now. Her magic is getting stronger, she's probably as strong as she was before the sacrifice, but she's still human. It's not the time to remind her of that, especially when he can't figure out if he's still human. Seeing ghost isn't normal.

"I miss you."

"I miss you too. Only a few more days."

"I know…I've just been so bored. I didn't do anything today. _At all_." Well that answers his question.

"Where's Caroline?"

"She's hanging out with Matt….how's the vacation?"

"It's going great. Damon snapped my neck as soon as we got the car. They left me to go look for Stefan."

She scoffs and he smiles at the sentiment. Sometimes they're so in sync.

"I think—" He's unable to complete his thought when Elena bursts through the door throwing her phone on her empty bed. Damon comes trailing behind her. "Elena's back. I'll call you tomorrow okay."

"Sure. Tell Elena I said hi."

"She didn't even leave a message for me?"

His sister speedily makes her way towards the bathroom and Damon plops down on her bed. Jeremy ignores the comment.

"Your neck must be feeling a lot better. Hmmm." Another comment he tries to ignore, but can't.

"You're not sleeping in here."

"I don't think that's your choice."

"Yeah it kinda is."

"Elena's her own woman. If she wants me to stay the night I will."

"You're right. Elena's her own woman. Not yours. Don't you ever get tired of being second best? It's happened twice already, with two separate girls, who look exactly the same. This should be old by now. What are you like a million?"

Damon props his feet on the bed and folds his arms beneath his head. "Do I look it?"

Jeremy looks as if he's really contemplating it. "Yeah you really do."

Before Damon can get another jab in Elena comes walking out the bathroom. She's taken a quick shower and changed into her pajamas. Her red rimmed eyes find his. "I'm sorry about today. We can definitely hang out all day tomorrow if you want."

Damon stands up and he watches them exchange eye contact. "I'll talk to you tomorrow," she says, patting her hand against his shoulder.

Jeremy can't wipe the smug look off of his face. "Bye Damon."

He barely sees him leave but hears the door click shut. Sitting up his sister takes a seat on the edge of her bed. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"You saw Stefan."

If she wants to continue with the lie she doesn't make effort to, "yeah I saw him. I know that the real Stefan is still in there…he just needs to get away from Klaus."

"Elena that sounds like a really bad idea"

"I know. But we'll think of something." He'd rather not he be included in that we. His dislike of Stefan can't be compared with the disdain he has for Damon, but he wouldn't be upset if the youngest Salvatore never came back. Smiling he crosses the space between the bed to hug his sister.

It's been in the hundreds all week and she's spent the entire day locked in her grandmother's house. Her father is gone again, like he always is, and this house feels more like home than the other one on the other side of town. Yesterday, she'd spent helping Caroline plan Matt's birthday party. A small gathering, nothing fancy. Just cake and ice cream and gifts. And balloons. Tons of balloons. _It's a Caroline thing._ She was contemplating faking sick to get out of it and ended up getting a migraine after a really strong vision. She can't tell if they're related since she's never felt anything but overwhelmed by them, but she was happy to get one nonetheless.

The months following the sacrifice had been spent getting her bearings back. There were no witch dreams; no vision. It took a lot of training to be able to perform seemingly little spells like the one in the woods that day,and if she's getting visions that's a good sign.

Of course it makes no sense. She's walking in the dark and there's a gate keeping her from going further. There's a set of gold rimmed eyes staring back at her. A chill runs up her spine and then Caroline's asking her if she needs a ride home.

Today she's scrolling down the contact list in her phone looking for someone to hang out with (as if she has many options). There's the girls from the cheerleading squad that she spends most of her time avoiding, (too many questions about her sudden departure) and there's Tyler.

She sends him a text, "The mall in a hour?"

It a couple of minutes pass before she gets a one word answer.

"Yeah."

* * *

He's already inhaled two corndogs waiting on Bonnie. He's early; Lockwoods are always early. _"If you're not, you're late and if you're late, you've wasted someone's time." _ He can hear his father's voice as clear as he would if he was alive.

The man had been on his mind all week. Every year he'd go to this convention of small town mayors every year. He'd watch the man flirt with women who weren't his mother and he'd make Tyler trail along because one day he'd be taking his place. So it's only normal that his mother would attend too but sometimes he forgets that she's the mayor now, she's not only planning events from start to finish but she's sitting in city council meetings and delegating duties. And she loves it, which is something he never expected. She was always just his mom, it's weird seeing her as the mayor.

He spent the morning watching TV and right before lunch he takes a run.

When he's fresh out of the shower he gets a text from Bonnie and that's how he ends up here twenty minutes early sitting in the food court.

"You've been waiting long?"

"No. Maybe ten minutes." No need to make her feel bad about it, which she would. He's not good enough at figuring out what kind of things spark certain reactions out of her. But he knows she's a stickler for time and that she's oddly cordial when she doesn't know what else to be.

Her hair's pulled back. Bangs sticking to her forehead. She's keeps fumbling with the thin strap of her sundress that keeps falling down, a slight tan line left in its place. He can smell her deodorant, something fruity, but it's over powered by her perfume.

"You went a little heavy on the body spray today?"

Glaring at him she fixes her strap one more time. "I'm not even wearing any." If she's really upset about he can't tell. It has to be the nearing full moon. If he focuses long enough he could probably guess how old the scent is. His senses are so acute right before a transformation.

"Must be someone else." _It's definitely her_.

"Must be."

"Are you ready?" Her bag is slung over her shoulder and Tyler's begins clearing the table. Dumping his trash he follows her to the escalator.

Bonnie stops at a kiosk selling gems and crystals that he would've normally ignored. Hundreds of stones sit on the display. There aren't many dull ones, most polished until they glitter and catch the light streaming through the glass on the ceiling. She takes a purple stone and drops it in his hand. This piece is buffed to a smoothness that feels pleasant when he runs his fingers across it. "What's it for?"

"It's an amethyst. They're good for protection."

"Protection from what?"

The side of her mouth quirks into a smile. "What don't we need protection from?"

He laughs. _Right?_

"How does it feel?"

"Heavy?"

It's not the answer she's looking for and he watches her run her fingers over another gem. Than another. Opening his left palm she puts it in there and hovers her hands over them, lightly brushing her fingers over them. She shivers. He can't tell if that's a good sign or not. "Which one feels better?"

It seems silly at first. They look exactly the same, the have the same weight. But the one in his right hand _feels _better.

He holds it up and puts the other one back on the stand. "This one."

Bonnie smiles. "I'm good."

* * *

They're sitting in Bonnie's grandmother's room on her bed watching DVDs. The mall trip was cut short after they walked into a scented candle shop and Tyler tells her he feels overwhelmed. He tells her it's a headache but it looks like way more that. Once they'd actually gotten out of the mall it'd calmed down and she invited him over to her Grams.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine."

They're on their second movie when she asks him if his mom would want him home. "Are you trying to get rid of me," he says jokingly.

"No. Just asking."

"She's not a home."

"Neither is my dad." _He never is._

Bonnie's going through another stack of grimiores while the sound of guns fire in the background. Her Grams was a huge fan of action movies and he finds the stash of them in the mess of boxes that litter the living room. "Do you need help?"

"No."

He shrugs his shoulders.

"I didn't mean to sound so…harsh. Jeremy helps me sometimes, it's just really…tedious if you don't know what understand what you're looking for…I don't even really understand what I'm looking for. If you really want to help you can just keep me from falling asleep."

"Your call."

He goes to pop in another DVD when he asks, "What are these anyway? Like magic dictionaries?"

"Not really…it's like a book of spells. Some are spells that are passed down and others are ones that a witch has come up with themselves...none of them are alike and a lot of times you can get the personality of the witch writing it."

"Do you have one?"

Bonnie grabs the book on the nightstand with the thick purple cover and hands it to Tyler. He rubs his hand over cover before flipping it open. There's only about five pages with writing on it. She feels a little ashamed about that and for some reason she wants to explain herself. "I should probably have more by now,but I've been so busy…you know with the Klaus thing… I've been neglecting it all summer."

."There's has to be hundreds of spells in one those…"

She subsitutes the word."Grimiores."

"Grimiores. You're only seventeen. It probably took years to fill them up." He's right. She knows he's right but after her grams death she had so many ideas about what it meant to be witch. And not writing her own spells felt like a failure.

Luckly Tyler's attention span is short and he's back to watching the movie he's put in.

-x-

Bonnie reaches over him to grab the gem from her bag. Tyler's watching her from the corner of his eye. For some reason she'd been in a funk since their conversation about the grand…grime…the spell books, except she hadn't asked him to leave and he didn't really want to.

She's pushed all the books aside, sliding down onto the quilt. Holding the stone she places it on her stomach. It levitates into the air and it spins. She begins to whisper a spell under her breath and then it drops.

He doesn't know if he'll ever get accustomed to seeing magic in real life.

Picking it up she hands it to him, her fingers brushing his and that feeling of death rushing over her. It's always so disorientating.

"What'd you do to it?"

"I extended the range of its protection. I know it'll probably cover your entire house and I can check that later…if we need to we can just get another one. That spell magnified the healing properties too so I'd let your mom know. She may be freaked out if she cuts her finger and few minutes later it's healed. You do have a big vase in your foyer right?"

"Yeah."

"Put this in the bottom….it won't affect the plant…and it won't keep you from inviting a vampire in. It'll just make it really hard to get hurt by one…I mean there are ways to get around it, but it's unlikely someone would go through the trouble. If you don't want to put it there I'd put it somewhere in the house nobody can get to it but you can if you need to." She toys with the gem and hands it over to him.

"Thanks." He stands up into stuffs it into his pocket his hand holding on to it.

"You leaving?"

"Yeah. I think I should." Bonnie walks him to the door. Hot air blows through the screen door before she opens it. "Text me when you get home."

Tyler scoffs. "I don't need you to check up on me." All of her friends do it. She doesn't think it's too much to ask.

"Just do it Tyler…it'll make me feel better."

* * *

It's early when he makes his way down to the pool and it's empty like he'd hoped. It only takes a few seconds before Vicki appears.

Elena's promised that they're going to spend the day together but it's looking unlikely. Damon came knocking on their door and they'd been looking over maps of the city. When he left Damon was saying something about a bar and Elena was getting her hopes up.

"What is she going to do when she finds him?"

"I don't know. She wants him to come home but Klaus isn't just going to let him leave."

He lies back on the pool chair the huge canopy, keeping his body cool.

Vicki sits on the chair beside him. He can't seem to bring himself to ask if she's seen Anna. "Have you seen Jenna?"

She looks surprised at the question. "Your aunt?"

"Yeah."

"I haven't. But I haven't exactly been looking. I'm sure you could find her before I could."

"How?"

"I'm not the one who sees ghost. I don't know." He refrains from rolling his eyes.

She sighs dramatically."Jere I want to come home."

He wants to reach out to her. "If I could help you I would."

Perking up she straightens in her seat. "You can. There are a lot of witches that want to help you guys with the Klaus thing, and Bonnie's already pushed the door open so it'll be easy."

"Bonnie's not going to…"

"But you can."

He shakes his head. "I can't. I'm not a witch."

"It's an easy spell."

"There's got to be huge consequences when a human does magic. I'm sorry, I can't."

"Jere"

"**I can't**. I can ask her if there's anything she can do, but I can't promise you anything. Maybe she'll be able to help you move on or something. She can find a way to help you move on."

"No. You can't tell Bonnie."

"She's a witch Vicki. She might be able to help."

"She'll close the door. She'll send me back." She's right. He knows she's right.

"She's my girlfriend. I can't lie to her."

"I know that."

"Bonnie…"

"Please don't tell her…not yet at least. I know you're going to...but just give me a little more time to see if there's another way."

He doesn't want to agree but there's something in him that reminds him that this is Vicki. He loved her once, He thought he couldn't live without her. He can give her this. "Okay."

* * *

Bonnie goes to Matt's birthday party. It's a small gathering of five, including two of his coworkers from the Grill. Bonnie's in charge of getting the triple chocolate cake from the bakery on second. His two friends bring the alcohol. They sit in Matt's living room listening to a mixtape Caroline's made for the occasion and open gifts when everybody's had cake.

Bonnie and Caroline are in the kitchen when she points to the box on the table. "He forgot a gift." Caroline shakes her head, "it's from Tyler."

"Why is he even mad at Tyler, do you know?"

The blonde pushes a curl out of her face. "It's some boy thing. Honestly, I don't even think he knows why he's mad anymore."

"Are you still mad at Tyler?"

"Of course. He almost got me killed." Bonnie throws her hands up in defense.

"I was just asking."

"Because you're besties now?"

Rolling her eyes Bonnie puts tucks in the cake box lid, "That's definitely why...I've told you a million times you shouldn't be so bitter."

"Yeah, because I definitely have to prevent those wrinkles."

"Your sarcasm is really unnecessary right now."

"You having shopping dates with Tyler are totally unnecessary."

Leaning against the counter she crosses her arms. "How do you know that?"

With a hair flip and smrk she replies, "I have eyes everywhere Bonnie."

"That's totally not creepy at all. I was just getting some stuff for a few spells."

She shrugs as if that's the least of her concerns. "I just know that you're supposed to hate the same people I hate and you're definitely not doing that."

"We've still got Damon." Dipping her finger into a glob of icing she sticks her finger in her mouth.

* * *

Leaves are crunching underneath her converse. She's underdressed for the occasion, her sleep tank and thin shorts aren't doing anything to prevent the mosquitoes from attacking her exposed skin. There's a slight breeze, the humidity of the night still as uncomfortable as it is in the day. The full moon is high, shining bright through the spacing of the thin trees. It's eerily silent.

There's this sense of déjà vu. She remembers walking through the woods before, instead this time she's not going near the witches' house. Hearing something to the right of her she turns her head. There's a large wolf ripping into a deer.

She freezes. It hasn't noticed her, too preoccupied with the deer it's sunk it's fangs into. And she breathes. Surely she's strong enough to protect herself, if nothing her instinct of self-preservation should kick in, but she still doesn't move. Hopefully it won't notice her.

Soemthing small shuffles along the floor and a twig snaps, drawing her and the wolf's attention towards the noise. There's a low growl coming from the wolf and she watches it turn its head towards the wind and finally to her. Gold eyes stare back her. And she wants to run as it walks slowly towards her. Her feet stay planted to the ground.

It approaches her cautiously eyes never leaving hers. She reaches out with her magic just enough to change the feeling in the air, and the wolf stops in its tracks. Bonnie's instinct kicks in, and that instinct tells her to start walking when she'd rather run. The wolf trails behind her, still keeping its distance and growling.

She walks until she gets to an set a stairs leading downward, straight out of her vision. They seem out of place in the middle of nowhere, but she's seen weirder things. The first step sends a chill up her spine. Death fills senses. It's too dark to go down there without a light and she sets off a small one in front of her. The gate's there from the vision, hanging off the hinges. She walks past the opening, dust kicking up beneath her feet. There's a set of chains bolted to the wall. There's the sound of paws tapping along the floor behind her and it sets her heart racing.

The wolf is still there and she doesn't know how she forgot it. It's stopped growling and now is watching her carefully. It gets a few feet away from her and does takes in her scent and then it completely relaxes. It sits down and its eyes find hers.

Another shiver runs down her spine when she reaches out again to get anything off the wolf she can. She was sent here for a reason. Pushing into an animal's mind is a lot harder but after a little bit of trying she can see a disfigured wolf in this room. It's whining, high pitched, and hard to listen to. She pushes further

gets an image of a male hunching it's back. His head dropping his head to ground. When it turns towards her, its Tyler's face with golden eyes and tears streaming from his eyes. She blinks and the memory jumps forward and she can see transformed Tyler ramming into the gate until it breaks. She follows it into the woods and watches it attack the deer.

Flinching out of it she looks at the wolf. She doesn't know why she didn't put this together before but she's got it now.

She flinches out of the vision and it's as if she finally realizes how much danger she's put herself in. She still doesn't feel afraid, not like she should, and Tyler seems a lot more calm now that they're down here. She begins to walk backwards towards the broken gate, towards the stairs but the wolf doesn't move. When her feet hit a step and she lands on her butt she stays.

There's a long howl that comes out of the wolf's throat only to stop and repeat it again.

Common sense kicks in this time and she finds herself whispering the spell to throw up a barrier between them. The animal's head raises and she can see its nose wiggling in the damp light. It begins a short-lived whine in i's throat, his throat, Tyler's throat, but instead of approaching the barrier he just lies down.

* * *

Before he opens his eyes he notices the stinging cuts on his legs. They won't last long but the fact that there even there is frustrating on its own. He's done this enough to know he'll have bruises on bruises for days. No amount of werewolf healing will stop that.

Tyler's sense of smell is as strong after a turn as it is before. So when he gets a whiff something familiar, something feminine he opens his eyes.

Bonnie's sitting on the steps. Her head braced against the wall. Her breathing is an indicator that she hasn't been asleep long. And he groans in his throat when he realizes that there's no way to get out without her seeing him like this. When he's slipping on his shorts he can hear her heartbeat speed up. Turning towards her he sees her head pointed towards her lap.

"I didn't see anything." He highly doubts that.

"How long have you been there?"

Her joints pop as she stands and stretches.

"Since last night."

He's throwing his things into his back pack, looking for a something to wipe the grit off his hands. He needs to pack a better bag.

"Jeremy asked you to come?"

Bonnie shakes her head and points to the gate and that's all it takes to send Tyler into panic mode. The last time he'd been anywhere besides safely locked in the cellar, he'd gotten his fangs into Damon (not that he's too mad at that, the guy's a douche).

"What happened? Did I hurt anybody? Did I hurt you?" He goes toward her only to be stopped by the barrier and she shrugs apologetically and explains, "to keep you in."

"Bonnie did I hurt someone?" Tyler's responsible for one death; he's not interested in adding any to that list.

"No, no. Well you killed a deer but by the time I'd gotten there, that's all you'd done."

It does little to ease his mind. "How do you know?"

"I saw it. Do you not remember what happened?"

"Not really. Scents. Flashes of things but nothing I can understand."

Dissolving the barrier she steps inside, "I can show you."

He doesn't get to answer before she's putting her hands on his temples and he's getting a fast forwarded view of the night's activities.

Bonnie's hands drop to his shoulders, ignoring the chill she gets. "See. You didn't hurt anyone." But he still can't let go of it. He shouldn't have gotten out. His chains should've restrained him. The gate should've held. Or maybe it was his fault. He doesn't remember double checking the locks. As if she's reading his mind she squeezes his shoulders.

"Sometimes things just happen. And I was here to make sure it didn't. It's okay." She's right. He knows she's right.

Unexpectedly Tyler pulls her into a hug and its a few moments before she relaxes into the embrace. His head find the crook of her neck and he keeps it there. Her scent is what kept her alive. He didn't try to hurt her because he knew her scent, that floral body spray she was always wearing was what he remembers smelling, and it's calming. That familiarity is something he needs after the transformation, it brings him back; it's why he finds himself standing in his mother's closet after she's gone to work. Maybe he needs it during too?

They've been standing there a minute when she realizes he's smelling her. "Um…Tyler? Why are you sniffing me?"

As if it wasn't weird enough she's noticed it.

He pulls back and rubs the back of his neck, more than a little embarrassed. "It's a werewolf thing."

Bonnie nods as if that makes sense. Jeremy tends to do the same thing whenever he blames it on the werewolf.

"You don't need to do it anymore do you?"

He shakes his head and she loops her arm into his, making their ascent up the stairs. "How'd you know the gate broke?

"Let me tell you about these horrible things called visions."

* * *

They go for deep dish at lunch and go back to the hotel to sit by the pool.

"I miss hanging out with you."

His sister is sitting beside him. Sunglasses perched on her nose, legs crossed at the ankle. Turing to him she smiles, "I'm miss it too Jere."

"We could do this more often if you wanted."

"Jere. That's not fair."

"Elena. I can't even remember the last time we hung out just the two of us. Can you?"

"No."

"Maybe you should—"

Damon inserts himself at the least convenient moment and sits down on the edge of her pool chair, every bit out of place with his black jeans and t-shirt.

"Don't you see us talking?"

"Has that ever bothered me before?" He lifts his aviators of his face. His eyes wild. "If we're going to do that thing we talked about doing we gotta leave soon."

That's all it takes for Elena to brush him off and head towards the room. "Jere. We'll talk later okay. This conversation isn't over. We're just…pausing it."

-X-

The conversation is over. They never finish it but the next day Damon's missing in action the entire day and Jeremy's grateful.

They got to a Cubs game. Jeremy's not a fan but it's a close game and a pretty empty stadium. Elena spills her popcorn all over him and they have burping contest like they did when they were kids and it's a nice day. It almost makes him forget that this feeling won't last.

Their final day the visit Millennium Park before their flight. Jeremy likes it well enough but he's ready to go home.

He misses Bonnie and has gotten her a lot of little cheesy souvenirs that she'll pretend to love. He hasn't really spoken to Tyler in a week and that's border lining weird. Work he'd rather do without, but tomorrow he's scheduled for the lunch shift. Everybody wants more hours in the summer so getting time off was a breeze, but he's just not ready to go back yet, he could probably get somebody to take his shift if he tried hard enough. He'll see.

Even though this wasn't really a vacation, it was fun, even with the vampire tag-along.

* * *

Jeremy's working out with Tyler at the school gym. It's not surprisingly empty for this time of the summer, when either everybody's on vacation or gone to camp and besides the new girls basketball coach closed inside her office, they're alone.

Well Vicki's there, but otherwise, they're alone.

The junior is spotting Tyler as he bench presses more than half his weight. Jeremy doesn't understand the purpose of him working out when his werewolf genes will maintain most of his physique, and he really doesn't understand the purpose of him spotting him. If he's not strong enough there's no way Jeremy will be able to pick up the slack, but he stands behind the bench anyway.

Tyler's telling him about what happened on the full moon. He'd missed Jeremy's call that morning, but that's understandable. He hadn't expected Bonnie to be having breakfast with him at the diner when he finally did call him back. "It's a long story. That can wait until you get back."

When he got back his first stop was Bonnie's. They'd ordered pizza and watched movies and spent a lot of time making out in the living room until it progressed to her bed, so he still hadn't gotten the full story. Bonnie was way too preoccupied to tell him what really happened.

"…and she said she saw it in a vision…and I know you're cool with her being a witch, not that I'm not…but it's weird."

"What's weird?"

"She was telling me all this stuff that she's done and it's weird. She gets visions and moves things with her mind and puts spells on rocks. She can lock you in a room for the rest of your life. That's not weird to you?

Jeremy's eyebrow quirks up, "Did she lock you in a room?"

"She put that wall thing up in the cellar so I couldn't get out…you know to keep the wolf in."

Jeremy laughs, "Yeah I can see how that would be weird and annoying depending on why she does it." Tyler's still hasn't moved the bar and Jeremy walks over to the bench beside him and takes a seat. Vicki has oddly found herself a seat straddling Tyler's waist.

"She's stronger than you." Physically he doubts it, but with her magic, she definitely is.

"Yeah. So? Caroline's stronger than you and you liked her."

"Yeah but Bonnie's infinitely stronger than you….I don't know…if she's having a bad day she could just rip you apart or squeeze you into a jar ."

"She's not going to ever do that, Ty."

"But she could. That's not scary to you?"

"No. Because I know she won't. Are you scared of her?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Bonnie's a good person."

"I'm not saying she isn't. It's just…like I know she's a witch, but I never really wrapped my head around it…you just live your life thinking magic isn't real and then it's real. And I know magic is the reason that I'm a werewolf, and somebody had to put the curse on my ancestors but it's been around forever. Then I realized Bonnie could do that. She could be sitting in front of me in Spanish and she could've just cursed somebody. It's creepy."

Jeremy shrugs. "You're just not use to it, yet."

"You like it."

"It's cool." It is.

-X-

Roles have been reversed and now he's spotting Jeremy. Jeremy's bulked up a lot during the summer, his shirts tighter. His haircut's a little shorter. Sometimes Ty can barely remember how he looked when he hated him. He knows it was because of Vicki but he can hardly remember why. Jeremy Gilbert is his best friend now and a year ago he'd rather not be in the same room with him; it seems unreal.

Jeremy had blackened his eye on Vicki's birthday. They were drunk and hanging out in the woods with the rest of the kids from the stoner pit. Jeremy blending in with his black nail polish and emo bangs, and Tyler always just looked out of place with them. He can hear his father's voice_, "Lockwoods don't "hang out" with people like that. You're a founder. Hang out, chill, whatever you feel like with founders_." Tyler cringes at how many The Lockwoods lectures he'd gotten over the years. He wondered if his father would be happy now.

"You remember when Vicki turned 18?" Jeremy awkwardly jerks the bar.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. What about it?"

"I just remembered how much we used to hate each other."

Jeremy chuckles, and Tyler watches him turn his head to the right. There's nothing there and he's going to question it but Jeremy questions him first.

His tone is different, not as easy going as before. Suddenly, he's really serious, "do you miss Vicki?"

Tyler face blanks. They don't really talk about her, not to each other. Talking about their past relationship is rare but to talk about her is even rarer.

"Of course I do."

His eyes trail back to that empty spot beside him and it's starting to freak him out.

"Did you love her?"

"Why are you asking me this?"

"It's just a question."

"You loved her, right?"

Jeremy sits up and turns towards his back away from that spot he kept looking at. "Yeah I did." Jeremy's shaky on the details after her death due to the compulsion but even with that he knows he loved her. Even if he can't remember a lot of feelings. In his mind when he thinks about her he's got the idea that she's just away and never coming back. He's not worried about her at all. That's what the compulsion told him to think. However, he doesn't tell Tyler this.

"I did too."

* * *

They're walking down into the cellar. Tyler with a flashlight while Jeremy and Bonnie trail him. Bonnie's going to magically reinforce the chains and the throw up another barrier.

"You'll only be able to get out once you're human again so you don't have to worry about fixing the gate and nobody will be able to come in unless they're a werewolf. So if that happens you're kinda out of luck."

Tyler nods and is slightly spooked when she begins chanting, her voice bouncing off the stone walls.

"It's done."

"Are you sure?"

"Yep. You guys can stay down here if you want but this gives place gives me the creeps

She sprints up the stairs and is probably halfway to the car when Jeremy reaches out to stop him. "Wait." Tyler takes in his face and he looks uncomfortable. Jeremy's been abnormally quiet the entire time and that's never a good sign.

"What? I don't want to stay down here either and you don't look like you do either."

"Ty…it's a really long story that I swear I'll explain later but Mason's here."

"That's not funny."

"I'm not joking. Mason's here."

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**This has been mostly done for weeks but I went through this stage of not being interested in TVD at all after the finale. Everything TVD related was blacklisted on my tumblr and I wasn't even rereading old fics like I usually do when I start hating the show. It was that bad. Lol.**

**And then my computer was acting shotty for a few weeks so I'm sorry for the wait.**


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